Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!fenchurch!jbs
From: jbs@fenchurch.mit.edu (Jeff Siegal)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: rm etc. (was: Nasty Security Hole?)
Message-ID: <10478@eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: 20 Nov 88 20:08:03 GMT
References: <175@ernie.NECAM.COM> <189@wyn386.UUCP> <8910@smoke.BRL.MIL> <118@hudson.Morgan.COM> <8941@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Sender: uucp@eddie.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: jbs@fenchurch.UUCP (Jeff Siegal)
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Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
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In article <8941@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>A utility such as "rm" COULD perform extra checks based on the inode
>permissions.  In fact the 4.nBSD "rm" does this ("override permissions
>on xxx?") and it is EXTREMELY annoying.

It is so annoying because the check is based on write access to the
file, which has very little, if anything to do with the operation of
deleting the file.

If there was a delete permission bit (this was the original point, I
believe), and some one had specifically turned it off, you might
actually want to think twice about deleting the file.

Jeff Siegal